10 free and totally legal programs every multimedia journalist should have

While some of the top flight bits of kit: Adobe After Effects, Final Cut Studio and the like are still priced at hundreds of dollars, there are a growing number of cheaper or even free alternatives.

As much as I am big on net neutrality, I personally don’t agree with pirating software – it is very costly to develop and as a professional journalist, I think you should always work professionally. So that’s why free programs are awesome – here’s a list of 10 you can download right away. All of these I use personally – and very regularly: they’re good.

10 free and totally legal programs for multimedia journalists

.01 MPEG Streamclip

What it does: Put simply, MPEG Streamclip is a video transcoder and compressor. It takes a video file and converts it into a smaller, bigger, different video file to suit your needs. I use it to compress the HD footage from my DSLR camera into a smaller high quality file so Final Cut Pro can handle it for editing.

Why you should have it: If you’re involved with the shooting or editing of video, MPEG Streamclip is a big problem solver. If you’ve got a film shot in .mov files, but one .avi file from another source, MPEG Streamclip will convert it. It’s also vital for making sure all your video uses the same codecs. You can also use it to resize footage.

How to get it: MPEG Streamclip is produced and published for free by Squared5. To download it for Mac or Windows, click here.

.02 GIMP

What it does: The comedy name stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program: it’s basically a powerful alternative to Adobe Photoshop, released under the GNU philosophy of free software ownership. It does practically everything Photoshop does.

Why you should have it: While, if I were a professional photojournalist, I would still get something all powerful, like Photoshop with Lightroom, GIMP is perfect for editing photos for the web, or for creating graphics. I use it to resize, manipulate and layer photographs for this blog, videos and the web; I also use it to design logos and layers for my Motion Graphics work.

.03 Audacity

What it does: Audacity edits audio in lots of ways and is particularly effective for editing speech. It’s used in plenty of radio newsrooms around the world as an alternative to Adobe Audition. It allows for multilayered editing and lets you add plenty of professional filters to your audio.

Why you should have it: It’s useful as a simple converter (to turn a big .WAV file into a nice .mp3) but you’ll get more value from it if you’re editing podcasts or audio slideshows or using audio regularly in your work. It’s a bit tricky to get used to though, so give it time.

How to get it: It’s available for Windows, Mac and Linux and is also released – for free – under the GNU licence. Click here to get a copy.

.04 FrameCounter

What it does: How many frames in a second? Well 24 usually (which is actually 23.98); or maybe it’s 30 (which is actually 29.97); unless of course you’re shooting at 60 frames per second. So how many frames in 15 seconds? Ummm… FrameCounter is a neat program from the Apple App Store which does the unpleasant maths for you.

Why you should have it: I’m crap at maths. That’s unfortunate when you shoot and edit video because there’s a fair bit of adding and subtraction to be done adding up frames. The Frame Counter’s a useful go-to tool for getting your sums right.

How to get it: Unfortunately this is only (as far as I know) available through Apple’s new App Store for computers.

.05 AudioHijackPro

What it does: Audio Hijack Pro solves that tricky problem of recording audio straight from your computer’s soundcard. For example, trying to record an interview on Skype usually requires feeding a cable from your headphone socket to a separate recorder. Audio Hijack Pro records whatever noise your computer makes and saves it as a file for editing. It does of course mean you could record licenced material (like music) straight from your computer, a flaky legal area.

Why you should have it: It’s useful for recording interviews or the audio from videos/live-streams.

How to get it: Audio Hijack Pro is produced and published by the hilariously named Rogue Amoeba. Click here to download a copy. The free version gives you 10 minutes of HQ recording, after which the sound quality starts to downgrade.

.06 Firebug

What it does: Firebug is a browser plugin for Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and others. Installing it lets you view and edit the HTML and CSS of any web page and get a live preview of how that edit might look. Fancy seeing how your favourite news website would look like in Comic Sans? Firebug shows you.

Why you should have it: Japes aside, Firebug is a fantastic tool for web designing. Say you’re creating a new online magazine: you’ve installed a WordPress theme and want to mess around with the look. You can use Firebug to test out different colours/fonts etc without affecting the stylesheet itself. You can also see how the code of a web page has been laid out.

How to get it: You’ll need a compatible browser, like Firefox or Chrome, but with that installed, just look for the relevant plugin directory and go from there!

.07 Wisestamp

What it does: Like Firebug, Wisestamp is a popular, free, plugin for advanced browsers. It creates a customisable email signature which you can attach at the bottom of your emails.

Why you should have it: Branding is increasingly important for many Next Generation Journalists, but how do you make your ‘brand’ standout among a sea of emails? Wisestamp lets you customise the colour, fonts and style of your signature and include a logo image. You can easily create social media buttons which link directly to your Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn and WordPress feeds.

How to get it: You’ll need a compatible browser, like Firefox or Chrome, but with that installed, just look for the relevant plugin directory and go from there!

.08 Instapaper

What it does: Instapaper is an online storage for those websites you just don’t have time to read. A button in your browser lets you save the page in one-click and read them later.

Why you should have it: As a journalist working primarily online I surf through dozens and dozens of websites a day. Serendipity occasionally brings me to something unexpected and interesting, but not something I have time to read straight away. One click and I can save it til later. Instapaper lets you archive webpages in folders too, so you can store links relevant to specific stories you’re covering. I usually save an hour or so on a Sunday morning to have a look at my saved websites.

.09 JDarkRoom

What it does: This is one of my favourite discoveries from the past year. It works to make your high powered computer, with all its buttons, dashboards, start menus look like one of those computers from the 1980s – you know, with the black screen and green text. Whatever you write is saved as a non-formatted text file.

Why you should have it: When I’m writing, I need to concentrate. That’s hard when you’re writing into a blog post, where the email tab is just a click away; or inside a word processor with countless distractions, like font size and colours. If you need to concentrate on the words alone, JDarkRoom clears everything else from your screen. The chunky green text is actually a very pleasant writing experience too. If you’re a writer your productivity will go up I promise!

.10 Quicktime

What it does: Why have I added Quicktime to this list? We all have it anyway right and it just plays .mov videos right? Wrong. Turns out Quicktime (on a Mac at least) is a bit more interesting than that. Did you know it can also record audio, video and even screencasts?

Why you should have it: You can use it to record footage from your webcam and Skype interviews. If you want to demo something on your computer, a screencast video is great.

How to get it: If you’ve got a Mac you should already have it. Again, a quick scout around the internet suggests this isn’t available for Windows users with quicktime. Sorry guys!

Of course, there are plenty of others too – including screen capture software, graphics software and writing programs. What ones have I missed off the list? Let me know in the comments!

They are “read-it later” addons which stores your links locally instead of a remote host. I don’t f**king get why I should connect to a website to get access to the things I want to read. And don’t tell me it is convenient because I can get it everywhere. I have a laptop and it is the only computer I use.

Some good stuff on there, thanks Adam. Got very excited by AudioHijack until I realised it was only for those strange people that use those odd little Macintosh computers.
Another video converter that I swear by is Super http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html Shocking website and quite a confusing interface but if you know what you are doing it can handle pretty much anything you throw at it with some good quality results.
Not strictly software but I also use Evernote heavily. You can put almost anything in to the notes, there are browser and Outlook plugins for sending stuff straight to a note including whole web pages and email attachments and Mobile apps for on the go stuff. I’ve even started using it for taking meeting notes now so I have a fully indexed and searchable notebook rather than a completely useless paper pad that I never look at. the benefits are so great I signed up for the pro account. I can now search notes, minutes, photos, documents, links, to-dos and loads of other stuff, all in one place.

Adam
I prefer Evernote because at this time it has greater cross platform capability. I use it on my PC, Mac, iPad and Android phone.
Perhaps too obvious but worth mentioning is Tweetdeck for smart phones. Had a huge blackout here with 5 minutes to go in the Superbowl. Got the score on my Android (news in) then tweeted the blackout. Those tweets meant I was interviewed on local radio morning shows, with the interview set up by DM (all while my computer was dark. had computer battery power but no WIFI) (news out)
PDF converters Primo PDF converter and Nitro PDF viewer.
For those who have their own Uniden radio scanners get Freescan, turns the headache of programming a scanner into a relatively easy process.

“As much as I am big on net neutrality, I personally don’t agree with pirating software”… in terms of non-sequitors, I find this hard to beat. I’m a massive fan of free museums, but I personally don’t like people smashing me over the head with a frying pan. I love real ale, but I personally would avoid the Northern Line in the mornings.

Net neutrality? Meh. I can see both sides of the argument, and so will you when you are connected to a hotel’s free wifi connection waiting for an important email to crawl its way onto the screen.
But stealing other peoples’ hard work by pirating software? That’s nothing to do with net neutrality. It’s just theft.

(And you said “I personally”, which means at least ten minutes on the naughty step. Go on, off you go.)

Adobe Photoshop Elements is pretty affordable for those looking for a good photo editor — a lot less expensive than the full-blown Photoshop CS suite. And because Photoshop is so widespread, knowledge of the Photoshop UI is a resume plus. That said, though, if I were looking for a free photo editor for a Windows machine I’d go with IrfanView http://www.irfanview.com/

In addition to Audacity, I use The Levelator to balance the sound. I like NotePad++ for editing HTML files and Delicious for managing bookmarks (great service, although I hear Yahoo [parent company] might be shutting them down soon. :-()

Quicktime Pro is a good one too. It’s only 30 bucks. Lets you do some basic cut and paste and export to different formats. I personally use it (and Quicktime 7) more than the new Snow Leopard version of Quicktime.

This was great information. I really liked the recommendation for JDarkRoom and plan to use it tonight. It’s kind of funny, my getting excited about a computer program with no graphics whatsoever, but it fits with a desire I’ve had lately to simplify the information stream I’m constantly exposed to.

I used Evernote for a while, but found it a little buggy, and the ads intrusive.

I began using Scrivener as part of National Novel Writing Month a couple years ago, and the program’s bled over into the same areas of information gathering and organization that Evernote used to fill. Unlike Evernote, it isn’t primarily an information-collating program, but a writing-based one. However, it’s a robust and secure place to collect the information you’d want to use in the writing project that it’s built for.

You can keep multiple “binders” of information in infinite hierarchies, including text files, videos, and photos, and create imports of internet pages saved right in the sidebar. There are corkboard and outliner views to organize information files in a binder, or points to make in an article or blog post. You can hyperlink between bits of research. Each page has a summary notecard for quick scanning, and a sidebar in which to gather relevant research links, either from other Scrivener files or from the web.

There are no ads, the layout is beautiful and intuitive. You can choose a full-screen view for distraction-free writing. It was originally for Macs, but they rolled out a Windows version in January.

I’m not associated with Scrivener, it’s just one of those programs that can totally streamline the way you research and write, and turn former headaches into pleasures. I’ve written two novels on it–but also used Scrivener project files to supercharge my blog posting and handle my GTD process.

While it’s a bit steep at $45, and can’t take “clips” of info right off the internet, it’s otherwise an enormously useful multipurpose program. If you’re primarily collecting information to turn around and use in your own informational project, there’s no other program that balances those two activities and integrates them quite so well.

We also like Scribd which is an easy way to embed pdf documents into your website….. And Tweetdeck for keeping our various Twitter searches in an easy to handle format – but then Twitter is another thing all on its own! @EdinReporter

1. RIOT: The Radical Image Optimization Tool. An amazing piece of software that will process one graphic or a batch of them to compress their file sizes without changing image quality. Helps make websites load faster and keeps down bandwidth transfer and server file size. This is an everyday tool for me. You’ll be amazed by what you see. luci.criosweb.ro/riot/

I may be the only one, but I only just found out how to download movies off youtube. Realplayer.
Again, I may be stating the obvious, but OpenOffice.org is the free equivalent of Microsoft Office. Perhaps not so well refined in many areas, but it does the job and opens and converts all of the office files.
Pleex.com is awesome for uploading files from your phone, and backing up your phone book or anything else on your phone. You log on later with your computer, and download it all.
Great start to a great thread Adam. Thankyou so much, couple of those programmes came in handy instantly and my work has definitely improved as a result. I have shared with many of my activist friends, Michael.

I have had Vuze for months, and thought I would have a look what it actually was…
any programme you want, free. Seriously. Remember Luke when you get all the programmes you ever wanted please, I could do with some journalist friends, Michael.

Pro Flight Simulator is presently my preferred flight simulator online. It may not be the prettiest flight simulator but there is nothing I’ve discovered yet that compares to the level of realism that it has. It is essentially a flight school simulator designed for your home PC.

Adam, loved your suggestions. Could you lead me to a fantastic writing program for journalists. I need it to hyperlink text, post media, just like a blog allows, but with added features that let you save your work to your flash drive & very quickly & privately allows you to schedule the release day of an article. Of course calender e-mail reminders is a must as well. Tall order, but, I think you’ll lead me the right direction, thanx.

The tool I just about always use when Photoshop is not available is Picnik (www.picnik.com) for editing pictures. It is great, easy and especially handy for cropping pictures for blogs and such. And most of all, it is web-based and free.

And I second portableapps. Great for use on pcs where you are usually not allowed to install new software (for example at universities, or in the workplace). There are quite a few programs you can download for free and it allows you to use it directly from the usb-drive.

Adam, thanks for sharing this excellent list. I’m a journalist and I see there are applications in this list which I have not been using. One of the programs I use most is gimp, simply great. I also use camtasia a lot for my video tutorials and I think it is highly recommended to include (at least the trial version). Greetings from Argentina

I’m amazed, I must say. Seldom do I come across a blog that’s equally educative and engaging, and let me tell you, you have hit the nail on the head. The problem is something too few folks are speaking intelligently about. I am very happy that I stumbled across this in my search for something regarding this.

Just a response about Piracy. To start, I support buying things you love but why pay for something you’ll only use once or are not sure you’ll like? Pirating allows for you to demo software and films and buy them if you want them. “Honest Pirates” do in fact exist. Also pirating isn’t theft. They are taking digital information and copying it. They aren’t walking into a movie store and stealing an item that took money and materials to make. They don’t cost the company money like a thief, they simply don’t add to the profit. Pirating really doesn’t affect profits as studies have shown. Avatar (With the blue people) was pirated millions of times, yet the movie still made billions. Pirates made no dent, and you can see this same thing in just about every other movie. Don’t hate on pirates, hate on congressman trying to censor your internet and blame it on piracy. I had to read both SOPA and PIPA for school and they had nothing to do with stopping piracy.

There may be a simpler solution than installing central heating and air.

And you can run a ceiling fan on about the same energy as an incandescent light bulb – a tenth or less what an air conditioning unit uses.
Also check the minimum clearance from the mounting point to the closest wall surface.